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Stevens County Times Editorial: Thank you Trump?

On Wednesday, June 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending his administration's policy to separate children from parents if those parents had crossed the Mexico/U.S. border illegally.

Written By:
Stevens County Times |
Jun 27th 2018 - 9pm.

On Wednesday, June 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending his administration's policy to separate children from parents if those parents had crossed the Mexico/U.S. border illegally.

Thank you Mr. President. The decision to end this short-sighted and even horrifying practice was the correct decision. A policy that creates chaos and causes trauma to children and parents is not helpful as the U.S. and Mexico must continue to consider ways to curb illegal immigration and assist those truly seeking asylum from violence and oppression in Mexico and other Latin American countries.

The U.S. can do better than separate children from parents and hold them in detention facilities. We can do better than the cages, fences or walls, whatever you want to call them, inside an old Walmart building.

Immigration is not an easy topic. It's not as simple as speeding up the process to become a U.S. citizen for those already here unlawfully and it's not as simple as prosecuting every illegal immigrant and building a wall at the border. How does the U.S. retain immigrants who are undocumented or illegal who are already valuable members of our society by doing regular everyday things like working at jobs, buying groceries, attending church and sending their kids to school while still being respectful of those who have become U.S. citizens or are working and living in the U.S. with visas and green cards? How do we alleviate the fears that are stirred when people share opinions that many violent criminals are crossing the border illegally to live in the U.S.?

Truly, if this was as easy as calling human beings illegal and vilifying their struggle to find safety, it wouldn't be a problem anymore, would it?